By Brenda Sexton-The Courier-Herald
Enumclaw High School will close the last of its partner schools - Enumclaw Adventure School - in June.
Started in the fall of 2002, Partner Schools - Adventure School and Enumclaw Cooperative Hands-on Experiential School (ECHOES) - were the start of the EHS reinvention plan to create smaller, more personal schools. Five interest-based schools were launched the following year. The two-year process was helped along by a $2.3 million Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant.
With the closure of Adventure School and the combination of the School of Design and Production and the School of Cultural and Performing Arts in 2005, four interest-based schools remain.
Partner Schools were designed to be parent-student choice schools and stand on their own. They were set up to offer a more integrated curriculum with a handful of teachers. Staff handled the schools' administrative functions, scheduling and curriculum development.
ECHOES closed its doors in 2006.
EHS Principal David Dorn said the staff has been meeting throughout the year, but came to a decision recently.
In a letter that went home with students, staff said the Adventure School was a rewarding experience and it was with regret they decided to close it. The staff was scheduled to be available to answer questions Monday evening in the school library.
“Personally, professionally, we just don't have the energy anymore,” Adventure School teacher Doug Wolff said.
“There's a sadness,” Dorn said. “We thought those teachers did outstanding things with those kids.”
He said the innovative approaches used at Adventure School were shared with other learning communities.
“They helped us to look at things differently,” Dorn said.
Superintendent Mike Nelson echoed Dorn and the staff's sadness. He said he knows they struggled with their decision. Nelson said the district still believes in smaller learning communities and the relationships that come from them.
Like ECHOES, Adventure School staff and students will be absorbed into the remaining four schools - the School of Global Studies and Business, The School of Design and Performing Arts, the School of Discovery and Human Services and the School of Innovation and Technology.
Dorn anticipates a smooth transition. The district's declining enrollment will keep the remaining schools small. Each school was originally designed to enroll 300 to 350 students and that should not change, Dorn said.
Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@courierherald.com.
